Privately held EnerVest Management LLC of Houston is now the biggest player in the Austin Chalk, one of the oldest and most prolific plays in central Texas, says chief executive John Walker. The company has 1,400 wells producing and about 416,000 net acres in the sometimes controversial play.

"I know the Chalk makes a lot of people want to throw up, but it keeps on giving," Walker said at the annual A&D Strategies and Opportunities conference in Dallas recently, presented by Oil and Gas Investor and A&D Watch.

EnerVest's EV Energy Partners MLP and certain institutional investors have signed an exploration JV with Apache Corp. in the Austin Chalk in Central and East Texas.

The agreement covers zones below the Austin Chalk in more than 400,000 acres owned by EV Energy and EnerVest, which will contribute the acreage and data, while Apache, as operator, will contribute its exploration and operations experience and the initial exploration capital.

EV Energy chairman and chief executive Walker says, "This is an exceptional deal for EVEP, EnerVest and Apache. Apache is an excellent exploration company, and we are excited about working with them and the added value from the additional exploration and development of the deeper potential of this acreage."

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